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Do your toes lift? Remember we want a foot that

Do your toes lift?

Remember we want a foot that has an arch that lifts and lowers. When your foot changes shape, your body changes shape above it. This is a movement that you need. Without it your tissues will work too little or too much. Too much or little movement within tissues results in inflammation. Inflammation = pain.

When your toes lift, your arch lifts. No toe lift, no arch lift. This is the medial longitudinal arch I'm talking about here (remember your foot has three arches (or four, depending on what you are reading)).

60 degrees of toe lift is a good lift. If your toes don't lift very well you can try stretching them to help you get a better lift. Like this.

The arch lifts when the toes lift because you tension the lower side of the foot and over the heel. It's a system called the windlass mechanism.

The foot is supinating twice during the gait cycle - at push off and at heel strike. At both of these positions, the leg is straight, the ankle is bent, the toes are lifted and ... the medial longitudinal foot arch is lifted. At this stage of the gait cycle your foot is short and narrow and rigid - making it perfect for springing off the ground behind you to push you forward.

As an aside - you might find that your toes lift beyond 60 degrees. If this is the case don't do this stretch - you want to work on reducing your toe lift.

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Is it really much better to have high arches? ⠀

Is it really much better to have high arches?
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People with flat feet often want arches that are high and vice versa. It's a bit like curly and straight hair in that you want what you haven't got but, unlike with hair, with foot arches you can (and should) have both!
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There are body positions that go with foot shape. Here are some examples: an arch is lifted when the leg is straight. The arch is lifted when the toes are lifted. The arch is low when the knee is bent. A rotation of the body away from a leg lowers the arch. It's this coordination of the foot to the body that is lost when your foot doesn't move properly.
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If you have low arches you need to work on getting them to lift. If your arches are stuck high then you need to work on getting them to lower. It's important to understand that a healthy, functional foot has an arch that can move from low to high and back again.
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This is why arch supports in your shoes don't work to help your foot function properly. They just help you have a new foot shape in the short term. As a long term goal you want to be looking at helping your foot move better.
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Toe and ankle play, this is a little sequence to c

Toe and ankle play, this is a little sequence to coordinate the ankle and toes while they move forward and back (in the sagittal plane).
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Happy feet
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What I'm reading… It's not a shark book. This i

What I'm reading... It's not a shark book.

This is a book about how jaws develop and why our jaws aren't developing as they should these days. Spoiler - it's about how you breathe, eat and sleep.

You might know that I am (slightly obsessively) researching and practising better breathing and this book is my new find. It addresses issues that mouth-breathing brings (like sleep apnea) and how, in the Western civilisation, jaws aren't developing properly and teeth are increasingly over-crowded and crooked. Chewing and nose breathing are the key.

Chew chewy food. Keep it in your mouth and chew it for longer.

Close your mouth. Breathe through your nose.

A book for all orthodontists everywhere. It's well-written and there are loads of pictures and diagrams throughout. Highly recommend it.

Have you read it?

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Movement therapy, education, pilates and workshop instructor based in Wimbledon, London.

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